On October 9, a lawsuit was filed against the United Nations in the US federal court for the southern district of New York by lawyers from the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and a Miami law firm. The suit, brought on behalf of the families of five victims of the Haitian cholera epidemic, seeks class action status for all victims of the epidemic, which to date has caused at least 8,300 deaths and left more than 679,000 sick.

As the government works on preparing “an attractive law that will entice investors,” Haitian popular organizations are mobilizing and forming networks to resist mining in their country.

Already one-third of the north of Haiti is under research, exploration, or exploitation license to foreign companies. Some 2,400 square kilometers have been parceled out to Haitian firms fronting for U.S. and Canadian concerns. Some estimate that Haiti’s mineral wealth – mostly gold, copper, and silver – could be worth as much as US$ 20 billion.

“The international community is so screwed up they’re letting Haitians run Haiti.” – Luigi R. Einaudi, US career diplomat, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Assistant Secretary General at the Organization of American States Continue reading this...

This week in Black Agenda Report

Once or twice a year Eric Holder and/or the president discover police brutality, racial profiling, or the injustice of the drug war, or mass incarceration. Black America gets some sound bytes of “drive-by” concern, some noises about a study or a “policy change.” But 55 months into the Obama administration, when we compare the prez and attorney general’s words with their actions, black America looks like it’s been played. Again. Continue reading this...

This week in Black Agenda Report

“George Zimmerman is no more provably racist in a U.S. court than most white Americans” – which is why a Justice Department action will get nowhere. Whites consider it “reasonable” to believe in the inherent dangerousness of Black males. “’Not guilty’ is reasonable, when everyone that counts shares the same assumptions as the perpetrator.” Continue reading this...

Photo: The July 6, 2005 UN massacre in Site Soley Haiti http://on.fb.me/Pmz8Xi Photo -The July 6, 2005 UN massacre in Site Solèy Haiti that killed Haiti hero, Emmanuel “Drèd Wilmè and about 60 other Haitians, including a 1 year-old Nelson and four year-old son Stanley Romelus who was killed by a single US/UN shot to the head in bed, asleep in his mother’s arms.)

This week in Black Agenda Report

Gandhi once said that western civilization would be “a good idea.” So would black journalism. One white TV talking head said he was ready to arrest Glen Greenwald. Not to be outdone, MSNBC’s black talking heads too, are ready to personally scalp Wikileaks and put the cuffs on Edward Snowden. Public opinion, which favored Snowden early, has to be pushed in the administration’s direction. A dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Continue reading this...

Three years after its star-studded launch by President René Préval, actor Sean Penn and various other Haitian and foreign dignitaries, the model camp for Haiti’s 2010 earthquake victims has helped give birth to what might become the country’s most expansive – and most expensive – slum.